23 June 2009 - 11:00
Mugen Civic Type R is here
Last week we blogged about the Mugen Civic Type R, a harder, faster edition of the already distinctly hard-and-fast hot hatch from Honda's almost-official tuning brand.
Then, though, we'd only seen the Japanese saloon version. But here's the Brit-bound Type R hatch, and it looks every bit as mental as we'd hoped.
Check out that giant rear wing and those mortar-like exhausts. The Type R has always been a pretty mad thing - hell, the standard Civic is barmy enough - but this takes things to a whole new level.
As we thought, power will be around 240bhp from a tuned-up version of the Type R's naturally aspirated 2.0-litre engine.
OK, that's still well short of Ford Focus RS territory, but the Mugen Type R is much closer in spirit to the stripped-out Megane R26.R - the rear seats have been removed while the front seats have been replaced by full Recaro buckets. Expect plenty of carbon fibre trim, too.
Tougher brakes, stiffer springs and stickier tyres mean improved handling... and the very real possibility of fusing all your vertebrae together over a bumpy road.
We don't know exactly how many Mugen Type Rs will reach the UK, but don't expect it to top 50 or so. Prices are expected to start at £35,000 and spiral rapidly northward from there.
Just one question: how the hell do you see out the back?
Now watch Clarkson drive Honda's blistering manga rocketship from hell:
Want to comment on this?
Hmmm, very 'chav-o-licious'. I can imagine teenagers with hats on all over the country cannot wait to put some horrible sounding, huge exhaust pipes on that thing!
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what about the Ford Focus RS
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That's the kind of pipe bore that only means it needs one tailpipe. Having two of those barrels is just mental! Plus that rear wing is almost as tall as the rear window, so seeing out the back might in fact be easy!
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Fiat500, what chav do you know that has £35,000 to blow on a car? And Robster, this rivals a Megane R26.R, not a comparatively softcore Focus RS. Like it said in the text.
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What is the spoiler supposed to do? This is a front wheel drive. Having driven a normal R Type the back end doesn't deed more downforce it needs a better suspension to stop spines breaking when you run over a pebble.
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Has anyone seen the front of this? It would appear they've put the triangular exhausts in the grille! (Google "Mugen Ciciv Type R UK" for pics)
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Hmm, let's see what else I could have for £35k - '05 reg Noble M12; '06 Maserati Gransport; '08 Boxter RS; '07 Audi RS4; '07 M3 V8 Coupe.......or a chavved-up Honda Civic.
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To be fair, Fiat500, Mikeado has a point -- all the chavs with their roofer's redundancy pay-off are in the 2nd hand '06 Focus STD's nowadays, which begs the question -- what decent used car could £8000 get you that wouldn't be a chav-rep magnet?
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hmmm. not sure about that one...
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this look better than old ...
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StigsIrishCousn commented on this article
23 June 2009
That rear wing is ridiculous! And no rear seats mean that this is like a Honda S2000 that doesn't look cool. At least you should be able to tell the real deal from the badge specials with those round tail pipes instead of the triangular jobs. How come it isn't in classic Type R white?
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